Curse

Painbringer · Feb 27, 2009, 06:14 PM // 18:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by PuppyEater

The best solution would be to allow teams to be assembled pre-match and to not reward losers. This random team assignment system and preschool style of point awarding is going to attract botters/leacher no matter what kind of system they set up to stop them...

Wouldn't this be making another "elite only" outpost. And personally I don't think we need anymore. I like the random. I really think A-net can nip this in the butt, but that would require them to get off there butt to do it.

PuppyEater · Feb 27, 2009, 06:25 PM // 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Painbringer

Wouldn't this be making another "elite only" outpost. And personally I don't think we need anymore. I like the random. I really think A-net can nip this in the butt, but that would require them to get off there butt to do it.

Then two teams of four for each side. The idea is that with no lose points to leach and bots' inability to fight real players the area would become very unappealing to them.

Grj · Feb 27, 2009, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ec]-[oMaN

The best way to overcome this atrocity is for everyone to stop playing that instance. I remember about a year ago maybe more the place was dead. Oh wait Anet added titles thats why all of you play it. If you don't give them players to play with how are they going to enter it? If they do manage to get enough bots all to enter with them selves Anets job will become much easier

Cheers.

Of course people are only playing there now because of the faction. Its the same with HA, remove the fame and it'll become a ghost town.

Also why are people asking anet to do something? They couldn't even manage this issue when they had the resources to deal with it, what makes you think they can deal with it now?

Syntonic · Feb 27, 2009, 06:53 PM // 18:53

So what if it does become a ghost town now? The rewards were implemented so it could start generating interest. Judging from the amount of people in JQ and the amount of people who complain about constant leechers, I think they did their job on that regard. If they reduce the rewards, the people who actually enjoy that format will still play while the leechers will probably go back to more worthwhile endeavours like bot farming. I never understood why people thought the rewards were supposed to stay at the amounts they are.

PuppyEater · Feb 27, 2009, 07:01 PM // 19:01

People will always bot regardless of how much is earned per battle. The reason they weren't plaguing the area before the update is because you would almost never see enough people on either side to form a team making botting almost impossible unless you got 16 botters/leachers to work together and it was hard enough to get 16 real people to set up a game.

UnChosen · Feb 27, 2009, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Its amazing how much effort was put in to nerf HFFF and Amatz Basin to "stop botters and exploits" and yet this far more disruptive botting/leeching in FA/JQ and sometimes even in AB...still haven't been solved >.> Now the only way to earn factions at a rate comparable to HFFF without wanting to rip hair out is vanquishing....so much for extra options.

Kawil · Feb 27, 2009, 09:37 PM // 21:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnChosen

Its amazing how much effort was put in to nerf HFFF and Amatz Basin to "stop botters and exploits" and yet this far more disruptive botting/leeching in FA/JQ and sometimes even in AB...still haven't been solved >.>

I tend to agree with this. I wasn't an HFFFer or a Basin guy and most of my faction is from AB and now JQ. It has become rather disappointing when we're all sitting waiting to get into a match and the convo turns to all the bots and leechers we all know of. Sure I report, but nothing has been done. I've seen some rather decent ideas on how to control this but I think the report system would work (better at least) if it was enforced more and bans were given.

RedNova88 · Feb 27, 2009, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kawil

I tend to agree with this. I wasn't an HFFFer or a Basin guy and most of my faction is from AB and now JQ. It has become rather disappointing when we're all sitting waiting to get into a match and the convo turns to all the bots and leechers we all know of. Sure I report, but nothing has been done. I've seen some rather decent ideas on how to control this but I think the report system would work (better at least) if it was enforced more and bans were given.

Agreed. I can understand that Anet isn't made of money, but I really think they need to hire a small group of people dedicated to the eradication of this kind of thing. People that are in charge of investigating and rubbing out bots would be a great asset. I do think the hex for reporting needs to be removed IF it happens that you're the only person reporting. I guess I never understood why that specific part of it was added in. The problem in general with bots is that they pretty much are just cockroaches. They're a damn nuisance that will continue to come back no matter how hard they crack down on them. WoW, Lineage 2, every stinkin' MMO is full of them in certain areas and I really don't think there is a surefire solution to getting rid of them. The only REAL solution is to get rid of the people making and distributing the botting programs, I think Blizzard recently took one to court and won. Even then, I guess that wouldn't get rid of them because other people would continue to make bots and distribute them through torrents and such. So we come back down to a more realistic solution, and although it would not remove botting and leeching entirely, it would remove most of it's appeal. Make the titles easier, although I hear people say KoaBD is "easy enough" that doesn't change the fact that the Kurz/Lux, LB, and all of the faction titles in EotN are nothing more than grind fests.

A suggestion would be to greatly increase the faction from EotN books, as well as quests. On top of this, the faction quests in Factions should give you a slew of faction for completing them. It's that or reducing the title requirements so that it's more on the level of Sunspear, which was quite well balanced for a faction title.

Quote:

And you're contributing here? Rofl Guru trash is so cute.

Can you stop posting? If all you're going to do is pick fights then we all might as well assume you're just a forum troll.

Ate of DK · Feb 27, 2009, 10:31 PM // 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by belladonna shylock

I'm curious, i What districts do you guys play in to see so many bots?

The district doesn't matter. You can only see who is botting during the match.

oracle.delphi · Feb 27, 2009, 10:35 PM // 22:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedNova88

IMO, implement an afk system. If you don't make an action within 60 seconds you get booted.

and people who are doing the drunkard title do what? not that i am afk usually but i will sit and read and click after the appropriate time...

as for botters, yeah report or ignore.

RedNova88 · Feb 27, 2009, 10:54 PM // 22:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by oracle.delphi

and people who are doing the drunkard title do what? not that i am afk usually but i will sit and read and click after the appropriate time...

as for botters, yeah report or ignore.

I meant booted from the specific location, like JQ and such, if you were working on drunkard you would probably be in an outpost. I think you might have misunderstood what I was getting at, or maybe I misunderstood what you were getting at

Coraline Jones · Feb 27, 2009, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by oracle.delphi

and people who are doing the drunkard title do what? not that i am afk usually but i will sit and read and click after the appropriate time...

as for botters, yeah report or ignore.

What?? So you're saying that if you're going for Drunkard then once a match starts, then you just end up standing around doing nothing for more than 60 seconds? He's not talking about AFK in towns, he's talking about inside the arena. 60 seconds being idle, then you're going to be kicked out.

Of course, even if this was implemented, people will just start running follow-bot programs to give the illusion that they are "playing" but in reality just running around aimlessly, spamming junk skills, and getting themselves killed.

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but here's why I think that nothing will ever be done about it:

The first problem is that there's few or no actual moderators that are actually monitoring the game. Something as boring and inane as Jade Quarry or Fort Aspenwood is almost a guaranteed unmonitored area, and you can grief all day if you wanted. The /report feature is basically a cheap and automated method of letting players police the arenas themselves. I'm sure that they would say that if players aren't reporting the leechers, then that's society's problem, not theirs.

The second problem is that ArenaNet seems to only step in when there's a direct tie to gold selling. Either actual gold or loot that could be instantly merched for gold. Both HFFF and Amatz Basin, no matter how you look at it, paid players gold rewards at the end of a run. You may think 50gp or 150gp is not a lot, but think about a bot that can run the quest or mission 24/7. JQ/FA both don't pay any player in direct money rewards. You can turn Faction into items of value, but it still means that it requires somebody to watch the faction bars and you have to regularly go to a trader to convert it into items and then merch them. This is a huge hassle for a bot. You may as well program the bots to run missions in EotN and turn in Hero's Handbook books for the gold reward. Zaishen Keys have no value to gold sellers as they have to stand around all day trying to offload them to other players. As a result, JQ/FA has little to no interest in gold sellers, and that means that there's nothing wrong with it in the eyes of ArenaNet.

If ANet does fix it, then it won't be with increased monitoring or finding a clever way of removing the leechers or bots. More than likely it'll be some kind of drastic sweeping change, like lowering the Faction rewards again--the equivalent of carpet bombing the entire arena so nobody plays it, either players or griefers.

Kawil · Feb 28, 2009, 01:38 AM // 01:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coraline Jones

If ANet does fix it, then it won't be with increased monitoring or finding a clever way of removing the leechers or bots. More than likely it'll be some kind of drastic sweeping change, like lowering the Faction rewards again--the equivalent of carpet bombing the entire arena so nobody plays it, either players or griefers.

Saddly, this is my thinking. I didn't do JQ before the update as I knew it was a place that was...let's just say this...dead. The faction drew me in and I found that I liked it (the format and the faction gain).

I have given ANet the benefit of the doubt on many things, I mean, it's a free game (subscription wise) that I'm playing. However, the report function was added by ANet for specific reasons...and botting and leeching are chief among them.

Also, I think Z-keys are valuable and if they are obtained from "doing nothing" (much the same as buying gold), then the attitude must change in terms of ANet's perspective. The relationship is there (between buying gold and leeching/botting for faction/Z-keys). Both reward players for not "playing" the game and earning on their own. Ultimately, this is WHY ANet should be more active in the report process when it comes to leeching/botting. It would seem to be in their, and by default our, best interest.

Alleji · Feb 28, 2009, 05:32 PM // 17:32

If Izzy just took one day to play JQ and just hit the ban button every time he saw a bot, that would help the problem quite a bit.

D A R K S O I F O N · Mar 10, 2009, 02:10 AM // 02:10

it's probably the same for every luxon or kurzick that does jq when they see 6/8 players in the shrines rdy to play and see 2 people standing there leeching. It's not fair especially for players that need a full team. Anet need's to look into this and eliminate this problem.